Travellers face clampdown on unauthorised sites

Eric Pickles says Gypsies and Travellers who 'play by the rules' will get the same rights as other mobile home users. Photograph: Geoff Pugh/Rex Features

The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has announced plans to clamp down on unauthorised Traveller developments, while arguing that Gypsies and Travellers who "play by the rules" will get more rights and be treated in the same way as other mobile home residents.

The coalition government will revoke controversial Whitehall "planning circulars" on Travellers that some local authorities claim have forced them to build on the countryside and compulsorily purchase land. It is estimated that councils spend £18m a year evicting Travellers from unauthorised sites. In January, there were more than 1,800 caravans on unapproved sites — an 11% rise on the previous year.

The planning circulars were issued by the former Labour government and stipulated strict requirements for town halls on the provision of land for Travellers. There are an estimated 300,000 Travellers and Gypsies in Britain; while some live in houses, one in four who live in caravans do not have a legal place in which to park.

Pickles will also look at ways of increasing local authority powers on unauthorised encampments, which are often a source of community tension. Earlier this month in Birmingham a group of Travellers moved on to a field next to Sarehole Mill, a childhood haunt of JRR Tolkien. They said they wanted to see the pope when he held a mass in the city next month, but they were unaware it was a ticket-only event. An eviction notice was served and they were moved on to a disused car park in Moseley.

The government is hoping to expand the provision of Traveller sites and to include them in a new homes bonus scheme under which councils will be paid for properties they allow to be built in their area.

Pickles said: "Unauthorised developments have created tensions between Travellers and the settled population. We want to redress the balance and put fairness back into communities. Like the rest of the population, the majority of Travellers are law-abiding citizens and they should have the same chance of having a safe place to live and bring up their children. These changes will put Travellers who play by the rules on an equal footing."

But the government "will not sit back and allow people to bypass the planning rules that everyone else has to abide by", he said. "That's why we will strengthen the powers that councils have to enforce against breaches of planning rules and tackle the abuse of the planning system."

In Upchurch, Kent, police disconnected an illegal power line linked to an unauthorised site this month after complaints.

The Local Government Association, which campaigned for planning circulars to be revoked, said councils are "best placed to know what is required locally, so any future decisions will reflect that".

More on this story

Residents of Meriden in the West Midlands have been maintaining a 24-hour vigil at a Travellers' site after four travelling families moved on to green belt land and started to develop the land without planning permission